Listening up

"Wow. I AM shallow."
"No youre not. You just have your preferences."
"Yeah, but I could be missing out on something good.."
"Nah. If you had gone through with it, you would always wonder in the back of your mind what you could've had."
"Yeah, thats true. I just didnt realize I was like that."
"As I said, everyone has their preferences. Cant blame 'em for it."
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"Its good that you landed here. Out of all the places, Berkeley is the best of all places to be shipwrecked."

"Why is that?"
"Well, you're allowed to be yourself here."
"How so?"
"You dont have to meet anyone else's expectations but your own here in Northern California."
"Ok..."
"Its not like say, Los Angeles, where after awhile, you realize that youre in a place where youre constantly scrutinized, to see if you fit in. Its even worse if you have to drive around, cuz then you really feel the frustration of being under that energy in a bowl. Even after only a few weeks, you'll start behaving according to how you fit in."

"It's interesting that you should say that..."
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"Wow. I was talking to an artist type dude the other day, and he told me about when he was homeless last year, he was sleeping on rooftops.."
"So? Whats so special about sleeping on rooftops? Thats what a lot of women do here."
"Really?"
"Yeah, when we were homeless, me and my girlfriend would do that all the time."
"No wonder I dont see too many young women sleeping on the streets.."
"Yeah, we tend to stay out of sight as best we can."